Didn't he pretty much say "let them go bankrupt" instead of wasting money on a bailout? But people said you absolutely cannot let them go bankrupt. And then they got bailed out and went bankrupt anyway.
My understanding is that a managed bankruptcy organized by the private sector, as Mitt Romney advocated at the time, was very unlikely. No investor in their right mind was going to touch GM or Chrysler in the condition they were in; if things were left up to the market the companies could very possibly have ended up facing Chapter 7 liquidation. The capital inflow that the bailout brought allowed the two companies to stabilize their balance sheets enough that a workable Chapter 11 bankruptcy became feasible, keeping the companies alive.
